The selfless subpar spearman is kicked from the hero's party

"You're outta here!" were the words my party leader sneered at me as we entered the guild. I was in complete and utter shock.

"Why?"

"You're asking why? Because you SUCK! The only reason I even bothered keeping you around was to use you as a meat-shield or something."

"Yeah, a sacrifice is all you're even good for considering you can't attack well," Iroha, the party mage snarled at me.

"As much as it pains me to say, using healing spells on you is but a grave waste and hinders our efficiency," Elenora, the party priest, sighed.

"I ain't defending a weakling like you!" Boris, the heavy armored tank, growled as he slammed his shield on the ground.

"Today was simply the final straw. I'm a nice guy, see, but I ain't some kumbaya singin hippie. You fuck up one too many times, you're outta here! Now compensate us for the failure today," Phoenix, the party leader and hero, sneered as he grabbed me by the scruff of my neck.

My name is Darius Clive. I am an adventurer and spearman. Today, I was kicked out of my party.

                                                                   ...

As I lay naked and beaten in the street, the guildmaster, Melia, approached me a drooped a blanket over me. "I can't believe him. How could a so called "hero" be so cruel and inhumane!? That was a complete humiliation and assault of your character. I'm going to try and get Phoenix and his party stripped of their guild membership," she fumed.

"No, it's alright. He was probably just angry that I messed up badly today. It's alright, just don't cause any trouble for them," I wearily smiled as I tried to get up.

"Why are you like this!? They clearly abused and humiliated you, so why!? Why won't you retaliate!?"

"Revenge is never a good thing. Even when fighting monsters in dungeons, I try to spare them as best I can. All life has value, even those who may look ugly and frighting."

"Perhaps an adventurer's life was the wrong choice for you, or at the least, you should have been a priest instead of a spearman."

"I sadly have no magical aptitude, thus I cannot become a healer. As for why I became a spearman, a spear has a long shaft, and should a comrade fall off a cliff, I can use it to more efficiently save them. The life of an adventurer is dangerous, that is why I must be an adventurer; so I can protect their lives."

Melia let out a lone sigh and walked away. "You have a heart of gold, but a stubborn sense of selflessness."

                                                                           ...

I ended up getting a job as guard at the town gate. Melia from the guild apparently had a sway in it. My new job was mainly to greet and inspect those coming into the town. My gate didn't see much action, though a few adventurers I recognized came through.

One day, one of them struck up a conversation with me.

"I heard your old party's been suffering. They've been failing big time and even got demoted."

"Are they alright?" I asked.

"Phoenix is furious. Though he's the one most likely to get kicked out of the guild."

Suddenly, as if on que, my old party appeared. They looked bruised and beaten, however I noticed someone was missing.

"Where's Elenora?"

"Dead. It's all YOUR fault! Now we gotta find a new healer!" Phoenix fumed.

"I couldn't reach her. She fell into the chasm," Boris trailed off.

"Dumbass wandered around and had it coming," Iroha scoffed.

"WHY WEREN'T YOU PAYING ATTENTION!? YOU KNOW SHE'S AN AIRHEAD!"

"Uh, cause I was fighting! Why couldn't you?"

"I'm the TANK you idiot!"

This whole conversation was making me feel awful. I knew Elenora was a bit ditzy. She was the one I usually ended up saving. However, now that I wasn't there, she was dead.

Our reunion was cut short by the arrival of Melia. "We have an urgent request! The princess has just arrived and will require an escort team. Darius, I want YOU to be a part of that team."

"ME!? Well, I guess I can protect-"

"I'll go," Phoenix glared.

"Sorry, you must be iron rank or higher and you're dirt rank," Melia scoffed.

"Don't care. I'm going."

"It's against the rules."

"And you think you can stop me?"

"Yes, Arcana licht."

An aura of light suddenly encased Melia as she rose into the air. She nonchalantly flicked a small ball of light at Phoenix, causing him to activate his shield. However, he was still sent back to the end of the shore.

Melia then destroyed a portion of the bridge, trapping Phoenix on the other side. He was now stuck on the island that housed the dungeon. Since he didn't possess the magic necessary to cross the bridge or fly, he truly would be trapped there.

"Now, Darius, if you'll come with me..."

                                                                                   ...

I bowed as I greeted the princess.

"This man may not be the most skilled fighter, but he outclasses us all when it comes to saving lives. Thus, I feel he would be invaluable to have," Melia bowed.

"Hmm, I'm not sure I can have him be palace guard. Though I suppose the escort mission will suffice. I do respect you, Melia," the princess nodded.

As soon as we got in the carriage, we set off. We didn't get far before a monster attacked us. I wasn't very helpful in fighting it, though I was able to save someone from getting chomped by jamming my spear into the monster's mouth. This also allowed the princess to fire a blast of holy light into the monster's mouth, killing it. With the threat gone, we all got back into the carriage. Once the door was closed, we all found ourselves engulfed in fire. I immediately grabbed the princess and dove out of the carriage with her.

"Oh good, it doesn't look like you're that-"

*Bang*

The princess' head suddenly exploded before my eyes. I began to cry as I frantically turned around to see a terrifying sight, hovering in the air, wielding a strange black object in his hand, was someone I recognized.

"Why- "

*Bang*

The murderer smirked as he watched Darius fall to the ground, dead. "And now to clean it all up so no one's the wiser," he thought as he sheathed his gun.

He then summoned a fireball and further burned the carriage, corpses, and surrounding forest until little more than ash remained. He then grabbed what remained of the princess' crown before flying away.

                                                                              ...

Melia went pale and began to cry as she heard the news.

"If you had let a hero like me accompany them instead of trapping me on Dungeon isle, the princess wouldn't have died!" Phoenix fumed.

"Yeah, we couldn't even explore the dungeon until an earth mage repaired the bridge you destroyed!" another adventurer shouted.

"You are no hero. You're a blowhard braggart! NOTHING MORE! YOU ARE RECKLESS AND ONLY GOT AS FAR AS YOU DID THANKS TO DARIUS-"

"Who's dead. And Eleanora was the one who was dragging us down with her ditzyness. I was doing MY job, but because guild rules forbid solo parties, I'm stuck being bogged down by failures!" Phoenix fumed. "I say it's time to revolutionize the guild rules! And we can start by getting rid of YOU," he glared as he pointed at Melia.

Suddenly, a royal envoy from the king arrived. "We wish to learn more of the circumstances that led to this," he stated.

"Allow me, noble envoy. This incompetent idiotic guildmaster decided to assign a guardsman incapable of killing monsters to guard the princess. Said guardsman was recently kicked out of my party after I deemed him a liability. However, THIS woman's delusional favoritism caused her to reward the liability and punish me with a de-ranking. I was a bronze rank on the verge of silver, yet she demoted me to dirt-"

"YOU'RE A HEARTLESS MAN-"

"SILENCE! Adventurer, please continue."

"Thank you, noble envoy. As I was saying, when the guildmaster announced the request to guard the princess, I volunteered myself, yet was shot down. Instead, she insisted on the liability accompanying the princess. When I tried to protest and take the job myself, she unleashed her powerful magic and sent me flying into dungeon isle, then destroyed the bridge, which both trapped me on the isle, trapped the adventurers still in the dungeon, and prevented anyone new from coming to the isle and dungeon until an earth mage repaired the bridge."

"Guildmaster, is all this true?"

"His attitude was nasty. I wouldn't let him so much as catch a gaze of the princess," Melia glared.

"I beg your pardon, but I am not a womanizer. Did you all not see her unleash her magic?" Phoenix asked.

The guild nodded and began to turn on Melia.

"I've heard enough. Melia Arcangel, you are under arrest for gross negligence that led to the death of the princess," the royal envoy glared as he slapped a pair of magic restraining cuffs on Melia.

                                                                                   ...

As the carriage containing Melia rode into the woods, the horse suddenly let out a yelp. Unable to use magic, Melia kicked open the door and escaped to find the horseman dead.

"What? Why is he dead, and why is the wound so small- ..!?"

Melia immediately turned to see Phoenix hovering in the air.

"You... YOU! YOU DID ALL THIS! IT WAS YOU!"

Phoenix grinned and aimed his gun at Melia's head.

"Is that what you used to kill the horseman? Well, even without my magic, I'm still fast-"

*Bang*

"You're not as fast as light though, nor fast enough to dodge a bullet from my custom revolver," Phoenix grinned as Melia fell to the ground, dead. "I just needed your light magic restrained since I could never hope to best you in a fight. Everything I did with that spearman was to prepare for this moment. Now, to destroy your corpse, and control the narrative," Phoenix thought.

Phoenix Tombstone was known throughout the land as an arrogant, but powerful adventurer, however, all this was merely a facade. In truth, Phoenix harbored many dark secrets. One secret was that he was originally from another world. In his previous world, he was known as Bernando Florence and had achieved the feat of becoming president of the United States at only 35 years old. As for how he did it, charisma, but mostly underhanded and immoral actions. Florence was the personification of Machiavelianism. He didn't care how immoral or inhumane things would get. As long as he came out on top, nothing else mattered. As for how he was even able to get away with the atrocities he committed, his intellect. Florence was a highly intelligent man as well as a master of manipulation. However, he was still mortal.

Just 2 weeks into his presidency, Florence drank some contaminated wine. While the wine didn't kill him, it did weaken him to the point where he was unable to defend himself from his attackers.  When life returned to Florence's eyes, he found himself in another world. In this world, magic existed and as luck would have it, he had magical aptitude for ALL elements. With a snicker, he adopted the name Phoenix Tombstone and began exploring the new world, seeking to analyze how difficult it would be for him to conquer it. Upon learning about how powerful Melia was, he devised THIS plan to take her down, and now he was one step closer to his goal.

                                                                             ...

News quickly spread of Melia's "escape". She was immediately branded a criminal. Phoenix, meanwhile was promoted to silver rank by the new guildmaster and the law banning solo adventuring was revoked.

Two young women then strolled into the guild. One of them was short and timid looking and had short black hair. She appeared to be in her mid-teens and wore the standard apparel of a commoner. The other woman was beautiful and had long scarlet tresses. Her attire also stood out as it looked far more advanced and didn't fit the world at all.  Though if she walked through the streets of modern day Tokyo, many would deem her apparel normal.

As the two headed for the request board, Phoenix strolled out. "Hmm, that woman's attire. A navy blue tracksuit and white running shoes. Those shoes, I recognize the design and brand, and that emblem on her coat... So I'm not the only earthling then," he thought.

"Is there something wrong, Madam? If there's no quest you like we-"

"No, it's not that. I just noticed that man's actions," the red-haired woman glared.

"Huh? What happened?"

"Phoenix Tombstone.  He seems to have reaped the most rewards from this incident. He also seemed to be put on guard by my presence, and seemed familiar with my apparel."

"So then-"

"Heh, it seems like this won't be easy. Come Hilderose, I'm feeling real fired up. Time for the kingdom's greatest detective to catch a mastermind," the red-haired woman grinned.

This is not the tale of the selfless subpar spearman, rather it's the tale of how the smart sadistic scumbag, Phoenix Tombstone, began his conquest to take over the world and of those that would try to stop him.

                                                                          [End]